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What happened? Deer Trail has historically been one of the year's biggest events of the year but this year's numbers are WAY down from last year. Are they a victim of poor placement in the calendar or just poor marketing?

Probably neither. After two, maybe three years, the course overwhelms you with its lame-osity. Can't do it any more. I think the promoters could change it up if they'd use the multitude of dirt roads in the area to make a really, really challenging course.

I've done this race three times now and while I agree it is time to rethink the course/location, it IS a road race. In about a two months, while in the midst of the annual crit/hillclimb doldrums, we'll all be crying for road race.

For what it's worth it was very well organized this year. The promotor, volunteers, officials, motos and police all did a great job. Thanks!

It may not be the most varied course out there but this was the first time I'd done it and I was surprised at how difficult it was and how fun it was. There was plenty of tarmac to try something on with the exception of the finish which - holy moly - was the diciest thing I've experienced on a bike in recent memory. Out of curiosity, what prevents a using both lanes in the final sprint? Police? Volunteer numbers?

I've heard that the course has been changed numerous times over the years. I'd love to see a gravel bit in there if it were feasible, but then that would bring out the gravel whiners. Can't please everyone.

I'm not sure what dirt roads would add other than annoying flats. You already have to fight for position for the turnarounds, and the crosswinds and rollers are plenty hard if people attack them.

The course is a classic "strong-man" course, with wind, rollers, and miles to soften up your legs before a false-flat tactical sprint finish. I can understand if some prefer hillclimbs, TTs, crits, or whatnot but we need some real road races too.

One thing I've heard over and over are complaints about the turnarounds. I don't see what the big deal is. It creates a tactical moment when you need to be at the front for the wind-change, and sprinting out of the corner is a test to your legs. People will race around cones in parking lots, but if you have to go around 4 cones in a 60 mile road race, people call it "hokey." It's still a road race, it's fun, hard, and we need more of them.

No more "dirt road" road races please. The Mile section at Weld County was enough. I'll take the turnarounds on dead quiet roads over a dirt circuit any day. We have Cross Season for a reason. Looking forward to Morgul-Bismark and Iron Horse Road Races. Deer Trail was a good tune up for that bigger, more expensive races to come. I'm glad there are few road races under $50.

It's not the dirt, per se. The dirt roads bring 2 things: 1) options for a loop, potentially a big loop, and 2) hills. There are some really challenging roads out there, just coincidental that many aren't paved.

When the comment came I I too looked at showed something like 161 total registered racers but now it is something like 468 which is down but not by much. Takes time for the results to come in and be complete.

Actually, I have. And, I made your same point last year when this topic came up. I was making fun of the earlier poster, who apparently doesn't get that Deer Trail and TdF don't have anything to do with each other. Personally, I don't like the 180 turns and find the behavior of attacking into/out of the turns to be poor sportsmanship as it's just taking advantage of an artificial choke point on the course.

Amen - Yah I think the course wears out over a couple of years. It's all about position at the uturn. Then someone, possibly on purpose, un-clicks, falls over, takes their time, takes a bad line, whatever and the race is over for all behind him. Whether racing DT or TdF, all racers want to feel they're on a safe, pro-worthy course. When Augusta builds a walmart in a par-5 fairway I'll consider DT a pro level course.

I dont know about anyone else but I had a blast! The wind, rollers and a pack of angry dads made for a brutal race. The 180 turns were great because after being tapped out from the crosswinds you had to sprint your tail off to make sure you stayed on. If anyone has complaints I would say stick to racing crits.I wish we had more road races. Thank you to the swift cycling team and anyone else involved

Yes the course is 'boring' if you are looking at the scenery. But looking around is not what it's about. What is boring is if all the races were the same. We have gravel, hill climbs, fast crits, that is what makes the racing fun. In any case it is the racers make the race. If the pack is all together, that is the racers fault not the course. I've done this a number of times. Been OTB on the hill after the first turn around. Been in the front working to break the guys behind me. Been in the top 10 spinting for the win, been in the chase group trying to win that. In any case it is a fun race, Don't need the gravel, since we have plenty of that in the Boulder races.

there were some monster potholes out there, most of which would simply require a bag of asphalt cold-patch. some of these resulted in broken wheels and we were lucky they didnt result in injury (that i am aware of). I realize that some road damage cannot be fixed by a promoter, but these were easy to fix and posed a significant risk to racers. Needs to be handled better next year.

As usual, the "we need more road races" crowd has overlooked the distinction between more and better. Deer Trail is hands down one of the worst races on the calendar. Not just worst in class, worst period. You can't garner much enthusiasm or support for road racing when everyone defends such poor examples.

I don't necessarily disagree with you, trouble is "better" courses without deal-breaking logistics are hard to come by, especially for small promotors with limited resources. As such a better race isn't just going to magically appear. Someone has to step up and work very hard for the better part of a year and take a big risk for next to no tangible return. If it was easy everyone would do it, right? So what's the solution?

We ran a poll last year on 303cycling about higher race fee for better events and by far the majority of the racers checked out when the registration got over $90. Without money/sponsorship or a ton of volunteers I don't see this problem getting any better in the future.

If you’ve been there twice and came back a third time and are still complaining, guess what? Nobody cares! It's Deer Trail. You either show up to race knowing what to expect or you stay home and wait for that perfect race one mile from your house with wide open roads and prizes for all.

The cones are a tactical point in the race and that's all there is to it. Get your ass up front! Or you can have a teammate go up there and slow it down so you don't get dropped.

There are pot holes in almost every race in Colorado. Nothing more to say about that.

The sprint? Again, man up and fight for the front like they do in the TDF. Rub a few elbows, raise your voice a little to get the slower folk out of the way. Nobody ever said that bike racing was a polite sport.

I hope Deer Trail never changes and never goes away. It’s always a challenge, which is what bike racing should be.

Good lord what a bunch of whiny Fred's. Look I'm sorry you got dropped in an amateur bike race, but instead of whining about attacks or potholes or 180s, maybe you should go out and do intervals until you see red so you can keep up next time.

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